The Hypnotist: First Thoughts

So I mulled over some of the ideas I came up with for the Hypnotist this morning, and I came up with a couple basic powers and conditions that I want to associate with the class, and a couple key bits of research that I ought to do. First bit of research: Fourth Edition has a “Sleep” tag that gets attached to powers that (presumably) inflict unconsciousness. My thought is to abuse the hell out of that Sleep tag, but to cause effects other than unconsciousness. To that end, I need to use the Compendium to track down all powers that use [Sleep] and see how many there are and what they do.

The first power I came up with is “Hypnotic Gaze,” which I want to look like this:

Hypnotic GazeAt-Will * Shadow, Enchantment, Implement, PsychicStandard Action | ranged 5 squaresTarget: One CreatureEffect: 2 + Charisma modifier psychic damage and the next ally to attack the target before your next turn deals extra damage equal to your Charisma modifier.Level 11: Same as above, except 3 + Charisma modifier psychic damage.Level 21: Same as above, except 5 + Charisma modifier psychic damage.Special: If the implement used with this power has an enhancement bonus, add that bonus to the damage.

The main power for comparison to Hypnotic Gaze is the wizard’s Magic Missile. The key differences between the two powers are obviously, the lack of a necessary attack roll (how do you fail to stare at someone?), the range at which the power can be used (5 squares instead of 20), the additional effect of Hypnotic Gaze (first ally deals extra damage), and the inability to use Hypnotic Gaze as a ranged basic attack.

I hope to make the Hypnotist a frustrating target to attack as an extremely close-range controller: I want to give him a slew of opportunity and interrupt powers, hopefully allowing him to use himself as a decoy to deliver close-blast and touch-range spells. After controller, the Hypnotist will probably fall into any of the other three roles, I’m not sure.